Week 38: Keep Watch

Our key verse for this entry into Fifty Things is Matthew 24:42-44 which has Jesus telling His disciples -

So you, too, must keep watch! For you don't know what day your Lord is coming. Understand this: If a homeowner knew exactly when a burglar was coming, he would keep watch and not permit his house to be broken into. You also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected.Matthew 24:42-44

And so some well meaning followers of Christ, they read that - and they say - well if I'm gonna keep watch - I need to know what I'm keeping watch about. What I'm watching out for! So they read what comes before our key verses in Matthew chapter 24 And frankly… uh… it can be the kind of stuff that'll give you nightmares… if you let it. If you aren't approaching this with proper context understanding you could wind up watching out for the wrong things.

Context matters- in the previous chapter, Matthew 23, Jesus is in Jerusalem, calling out the Pharisees and religious leaders for their hypocrisy and their teachings and how they were burdening the people - and you can read it all yourself later - but there's a part I want you to keep in mind Jesus says

What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you build tombs for the prophets your ancestors killed, and you decorate the monuments of the godly people your ancestors destroyed. Then you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would never have joined them in killing the prophets.'Matthew 23:29-30

And of course, the bitter irony is, yeah they would - because they've got the Son of God in front of them right now - Love come down - fully God, fully man - and they're gonna kill Him too because what He was teaching was different than what THEY were teaching. And Jesus goes on to say

But in saying that, you testify against yourselves that you are indeed the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Go ahead and finish what your ancestors started. Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell?" Therefore, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers of religious law. But you will kill some by crucifixion, and you will flog others with whips in your synagogues, chasing them from city to city.Matthew 23:31-34

Now history would tell us that Jesus' apostles and teachers in the early church WOULD be killed by the religious leaders, they WOULD be killed by crucifixion, they WOULD be flogged with whips and be chased from city to city.

So after Jesus says the religious leaders will do all this terrible stuff to the prophets and wise men and teachers of religious law that He was sending, and make no mistake, He was talking about the apostles - he tells the pharisees -

As a result, you will be held responsible for the murder of all godly people of all time - from the murder of righteous Abel to the murder of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you killed in the Temple between the sanctuary and the altar.Matthew 23:36

Alright - now I want you pay attention to what Jesus says next. It's important -

I tell you the truth, this judgment will fall on THIS VERY GENERATION.Matthew 23:36

Okay - so Jesus is placing the judgment that would befall them, in THAT GENERATION. The generation Jesus was living in. The time the disciples were living in. That's the time period Jesus is talking about.

And Jesus then audibly grieves over Jerusalem. He says,

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God's messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn't let me. And now, look, your house is abandoned and desolate. For I tell you this, you will never see me again until you say, 'Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!Matthew 23:39

And that is one of those sayings that gets interpreted a number of ways. Some people think of

you will never see me again until you say, 'Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!Matthew 23:39

as a prophecy about Jesus second coming and the end of the world. The idea being that that will be the day that all people everywhere in the world will finally recognize Jesus as the Messiah, Jerusalem included. Which I have no doubt that they will - but what Jesus is saying here can't be about Jerusalem strictly as a geographical location.

Because if Jerusalem was never gonna see Jesus again until His second coming when all people finally recognize Jesus as the Messiah - that doesn't make sense because according to scripture upon Jesus' resurrection from the grave, He appeared in Jerusalem… multiple times.

John 20:19-25, Luke 24:33-43, John 20:26-29

But there are other context clues to help us understand what Jesus is saying - He says "your house is abandoned and desolate." That was a reference to the Temple in Jerusalem. And it was most likely a prophetic reference to something Jesus would refer to once again in just a little bit in Matthew chapter 24 - the impending judgment and destruction of the Temple. Now Jesus also said -

You will never see me again until you say, 'Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!Matthew 23:39

What the crowds shouted during Jesus' triumphal entry, , the religious leaders rejected… And so what Jesus is most likely saying here is that the religious leaders not Jerusalem as a whole, will only see Jesus again when they see Him and accept Him in the way the crowds did during the triumphal entry - as the long awaited Messiah. The context that makes the most sense for this passage is basically that this was the final rejection of Jesus by Jerusalem's religious leaders before His crucifixion and ascension, signaling an end to Jesus' ministry among them and the pronouncement of judgment upon them.

Now why did we spend so much time getting the context of Matthew 23 right when our key verse is in Matthew 24? Because it happens at the same time. It's part of the same story. The same subject. Chapter headings in our Bibles didn't come until the early 13th century. Verses weren't numbered and standardized until the mid 16th century. Now the chapter and verse system is great for locating and referencing specific texts - but sometimes it creates divisions in our mind - and we separate conversations out from the whole and ideas that were meant to flow freely into one another become divided and we look at them separately and get confused by reading them out of context. And Matthew 24 gets victimized this way so often.

The question that we started down that rabbit trail for was "what are we KEEPING WATCH for…" And so some people, thinking they're doing their due diligence head right up to the start of the chapter and start reading to find the answer -

Matthew 24:1

As Jesus was leaving the Temple grounds, His disciples pointed out to Him the various Temple buildings. But He responded, "Do you see all these buildings? I tell you the truth, they will be completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another!Matthew 24:1-2

Now - Jesus just said the judgment would fall on THAT GENERATION in Matthew 23. He just said the temple would be left abandoned and desolate. This is a continuation on that thought.

Then we read "Later, Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives. His disciples came to Him privately and said, "Tell us, when will all this happen? What sign will signal your return and the…"

And this is where it gets interesting. Because some translations choose to translate this as "end of the world"

"End of the world."

And some translations have it as

End of the age.Matthew 24:3

And those are two… separate… things. There's even a translation or two out there that says

"Close of the age."

Now, I will tell you that the majority of translations and the more reliable translations translate this passage as "End of the age."

The word in Greek that follows "end of" is "aion" - best translated as age or "era." When is the "end of an era." If the authors wanted to say "End of the world" a better choice would have been to use the word "cosmos." That's not what the author was trying to convey. The disciples were asking two questions here really, but they probably didn't understand they were asking two separate questions. They probably thought it was the SAME question -

Here's the questions they were asking-

• What sign will signal your return?
• What sign would signal the end of the age?

Now you have to remember, the disciples, the apostles, the early church - they thought Jesus' return was IMMINENT. You can see that all throughout the New Testament. But here we are two thousand years later still waiting… the disciples obviously misunderstood.

But let's look at how Jesus answers these questions in Matthew 24 -

Jesus told them, "Don't let anyone mislead you, for many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Messiah.' They will deceive many. And you will hear or wars and threats of wars, but don't panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won't follow immediately. Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come."Matthew 24:4-8

And you read this on its own…and you go - well, I mean, this KINDA sounds like the end of the world. Nation against nation, earthquakes, famines… must be the end of the world.

Well - if Jesus was talking about the future thousands of years from now - two thousand years PLUS away from His own time period - then why does in the very next verse Jesus make it specific to the disciples and their time period. He makes it personal. About them.

Then YOU will be arrested, persecuted and killed. YOU will be hated all over the world because you are my followers.Matthew 24:9

And remember - why were the disciples asking these questions in the first place? Because earlier that day - Jesus had told the religious leaders in so many words that they were gonna torture and kill the apostles. And Jesus had told them THAT DAY that judgment was coming to THAT generation and the Temple would be left abandoned and desolate in THAT GENERATION.

Now did this come to pass? About the apostles being hated ALL OVER THE WORLD and persecuted and killed - uh yeah - the disciples were not just killed in Roman occupied Jerusalem and similar territories by the religious leaders. Andrew was killed in Greece. Thomas was killed in India. Philip was killed in Phrygia. Matthew was killed in Ethiopia. Simon the Zealot was killed in Persia or Britain. We're not sure. Bartholomew was killed in Armenia. And even the authors of the Gospel- would be killed in diverse places - Saint Mark the evangelist, author of the Gospel of Mark, who was a young disciple who witnessed Jesus' arrest, would later be killed in Alexandria, Egypt. Luke the author of the Gospel of Luke and close companion of the apostle Paul was hanged in Greece.

Huh. That tracks with the more 'present to the disciples time period' temporal setting. But what about the wars and threats of wars? That's gotta be about the future end of the world right? Probably not.

The time between AD 30 and AD 75 was marked by significant wars, violent revolts and severe political instability within the Roman Empire. In fact it was often referred to AT THE TIME as a time of "wars and rumors of wars."

Huh.

There were major rebellions in Judea and Britain. There was war with the Parthian Empire. A war for control of Armenia between Rome and the Parthian Emprire. There was a brutal Roman civil war where four different generals vied for the throne after Nero's death in quick succession causing intense political instability. There was a massive uprising by British tribes against Roman occupation resulting in the destruction of Colchester and London which nearly caused the Romans to abandon Britain. Caligula's "threats" against Germania and Britain were constant. While he never launched a full scale war, he marched armies to the coast and would stage incidents that created tension and "rumors of war." And perhaps most importantly to our conversation there was the first Jewish-Roman War specifically between AD 66- AD73 or 74. This was a massive conflict which involved Jewish fighters fighting against Roman rule and it resulted in…

The destruction of the Temple by Titus in AD 70. The end of the 2nd Temple age. The end of an era. The end of a time period that had lasted anywhere from 420-600 years. The end of the sacrificial system. And the beginning of Rabbinic Judaism.

Huh.

Well what about the famines and earthquakes - I mean that seems pretty apocalyptic. That had to be about the future ultimate end of the world. Well all this would've been a Galactus level event for the world as they knew it at the time. And uh yeah there were some pretty heavy duty earthquakes in diverse places. The period between AD 30 and AD 75 was known for INTENSE seismic activity in the Mediterranean region and throughout the Roman Empire. It was a time of geological instability around the Bay of Naples and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Geological evidence from Dead Sea sediment cores indicates a significant earthquake occurred somewhere between AD 26 and AD 36. Some people try to align that with the accounts in the Gospel of Matthew of the great earthquake that happened during the crucifixion of Jesus, but there's no way to know for sure.

In AD 37 there was a major earthquake that struck Antioch in Syria which led to a rebuild by Caligula.

In AD 62 a major earthquake caused extensive damage to Pompeii, Heruclaneum and surrounding areas in the Bay of Naples. The destruction was so severe that repairs were still underway when Mount Vesuvius erupted 15 years later in 79 AD.

In AD 64 there was a smaller but still significant earthquake that happened in Naples while Nero was performing in a theater. Apparently God gave His performance two thumbs down. That's a joke. God doesn't send natural disasters as critical notes. Otherwise Cats would've been Cataclysmic. The world would have never recovered from a Catastrophe of that magnitude. Alright, I'll stop meow.

But were there famines during that time? Surely that's got to be an end of the world thing, right?

Well, in Acts chapter 11 a prophet from Jerusalem came to Antioch named Agabus and it says "Agabus stood up in one of the meetings and predicted by the Spirit that a great famine was coming upon the entire Roman world." (This was fulfilled during the reign of Claudius.)

The reign of Claudius by the way was between AD 41 - AD 54. Same time period as all of these other thins taking place ending with the destruction of the temple in AD 70 and the fall of Masada, the last Jewish stronghold in AD 73. We also know that there was a great famine that took place in AD 70. This one was manmade - caused by the Roman blockade during the siege of Jerusalem and resulting in widespread starvation and thousands of deaths and desperate measures including cannibalism. Hundreds of thousands dies during this famine. People were eating grass, garbage, leather from belt and shoes and waste. The severe hunger led to violence with gangs breaking into peoples homes and snatching food from the mouths of the dying. Archaeologists found withinin that region empty cooking pots and lamps in cisterns - which they theorized might've been a "cache" where someone might have hidden food during those extremely desperate times.

So famines… check.

Huh.

False prophets? People claiming to be the Messiah? People coming in the name of the Messiah? Sounds like the end of the world to me, Josh…

Well, the Jewish historian Josephus AND the New Testament confirms a surge or false prophets and messiah imposters in Judea between AD 30 and AD 70. Theudas who operated from AD 44-46 was a magician who claimed to be a prophet and he convinced a large crowd to follow him to the Jordan River promising to divide it by his command. He was captured and killed by the Roman procurator Fadus. At least 400 of his followers were killed or captured with the rest scattered.

There was an Egyptian prophet. This guy was a big deal in the 50's - the AD 50's… He had about 30,000 followers that he gathered on the Mount of Olives. He claimed the walls of Jerusalem would fall at his command. But he was defeated by Roman forces. And Roman Procurator Antonius Felix killed 400 of his followers and took 200 more prisoners. And the Egyptian prophet - he escaped never to be seen again.

Simon Bar Giora, a revolutionary leader during the Jewish war which ended in AD 70 was viewed as a messianic figure - promising liberation from Rome. He was executed in AD 71. His followers were killed, enslaved and sent to labor camps or executed by Roman forces.

There are so many others during this time period you can look at -

John of Gisela (AD 66-70) Menachem ben Judah (AD 66) Dositheus (AD 45) Menahem ben Judah (AD 66) David the Egyptian (AD 60) The Samaritan (AD 36)

Ladies and gentlemen, that is the tip of the iceberg.

Huh.

What else did Jesus say?

Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole word, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come.Matthew 24:14

Let's take the last part first - the Good News about the Kingdom was being preached throughout the whole world during the time period of AD 30- AD 75 thanks to the work of Jesus' followers and missionary efforts. The end being the "end of the age." But we often think of "the whole world" as OUR whole world as we know it. (Animaniacs countries song) - but the Greek word that we read here that Jesus uses is "Oikoumene" which was an allusion to the Roman Empire. It translates to "the inhabited world" - and it was a Greek concept adopted by the Roman Empire to describe the known, civilized world under Roman administration. This term and "orbis Romanus" 'Roman World' were used interchangeably.

The apostle Paul would've understood this statement by Jesus to be fulfilled in his lifetime. With Paul's own measures and missionary journeys having a lot to do with it. For proof of this see

Romans 10:18, Romans 16:26, Colossians 1:6, Colossians 1:23,

Especially Colossians 1:23

The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God's servant to proclaim it.Colossians 1:23

Now the first part- sin was rampant, and would continue to be during that time. All you have to do is look at some of the things the rulers and leaders and emperors were doing during that time. And what people did when faced with the worst of situations. We already mentioned some of it. Of course the love of many grew cold whether hopes of what they expected the Messiah to represent were dashed and they were faced with calamity rather than peace and comfort.

The phrase that often feels really apocalyptic is "the one who endures to the end will be saved." But we're reading that apocalypse into it. That's not in the narrative. And it can't mean physically saved as in 'yay. I made it through. I survived.' Because Jesus has already said that His apostles are gonna be killed. So what Jesus is saying here probably echoes a theme that is repeated all throughout the New Testament - its a practical call to persevere through life's trials, temptations and adversity while maintaining faith and integrity and not giving up. Not abandoning your faith. Not abandoning the mission. Saved in this context is basically finding peace and being delivered from spiritual defeat despite the WORST of life's difficulties. It's staying committed to what Jesus called us to do. And that requires great patience and resilience in the face of great hardship.

DON'T GIVE UP

Situations may change. Life as you know it may change. You may go through some hard times. But keep enduring and keep the faith because in doing so your soul will find peace and your spirit will find salvation.

Now there's a section of this passage that a lot of people want to make about the end of ze world… but we gotta get this in the proper context as well otherwise we will waste our time looking for something that already happened. And trust me when I say a lot of time has been wasted theorizing about this and looking for this. Matthew 24:15

The day is coming when you will see what Daniel the prophet spoke about - the sacrilegious object that causes desecration (or in Greek, the abomination of desolation) standing in the Holy Place." (Reader, pay attention!) "Then those in Judea must flee to the hills. A person out on the deck of a roof must not go down into the house to pack. A person out in the field must not return even to get a coat. How terrible it will be for pregnant women and for nursing mothers in those days. And pray that your flight will not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For there will be great anguish than at any time since the world began. And it will never be so great again. In fact, unless that time of calamity is shortened, not a single person will survive. But it will be shortened for the sake of God's chosen ones.Matthew 24:15-22

Alright - let's get the time period down right now. Jesus is talking to His disciples. And like the rest of this conversation it has been about THAT generation. The generation Jesus and the disciples were living in. He says

The day is coming when YOU will see what Daniel the prophet spoke about - the sacrilegious object that causes desecration.Mathew 24:15

Jesus says - YOU will see it. The DISCIPLES will see it. Throughout these entire two chapters and these conversations with the Pharisees and the disciples, Jesus has not been talking about some hypothetical third temple to come. He has been talking about the second temple that is there now and won't be soon. Within a generation. He was referencing things that the disciples would've been familiar with so they could warn people to run when they saw them.

What is the abomination that causes desolation or the abomination of desecration as described in Daniel? Well, this is one of those things that probably already happened BEFORE Jesus and Jesus was referring to it as something that would happen again and be recognized. In 167 BC, Antiochus Epiphanes, a Seleucid king, ruler of the Syrian based empire that controlled Palestine, in an attempt to stamp out the Jewish religion, banned the Temple sacrifices, set up an altar to Zeus over the Jewish altar of burnt offerings, and ordered the sacrifice of pigs upon it. Pigs of course being an unclean animal. Antiochus Epiphanes sacrificed the animal and set up altars to other gods in the holy of holies- therefore the temple was desecrated by this abomination, the Jewish people were forced to flee the temple and the temple became 'abandoned and desolate.' This is recorded, not just in history, not just in the book of Daniel as prophecy but also as history in 1 and 2 Maccabees.

So if this already happened in 167 BC, Jesus is referencing a similar event to come that the disciples would be able to recognize based on the history of the past. Another act of desecration that would lead to the temple being abandoned and desolate. Another act of extreme sacrilege by a ruler at the time. Would that happen within the disciples generation? Yes.

The historian Josephus writes about how in 70 AD, the Romans set up their gods and their altars in the temple courts and offered sacrifices to them.This was an abomination and it defiled and desecrated the temple. The burnt offerings that the Jewish priests would make would be terminated with the siege of the temple.

By the way when the attacks on the Jewish people were ramped up during this time period, some early Christians in Judea did flee to the hills after that happened just like Jesus recommended- they fled to Pella, in Jordan. A rugged, hilly terrain in the easter foothills of the northern Jordan Valley about 27 kilometers south of the Sea of Galilee. Eusebius, the early church historian records the flight to the hills of Pella.

Huh.

Now I get it - when you hear Jesus say a line about

For there will be greater anguish than at any time since the world began. And it will never be so great again.Matthew 24:21

for those of us who grew up being told that Matthew 24 was about The Great Tribulation and Ze End of Ze Entire World… we think, well, whatever happened then, it can't possibly compare to World War I or World War II and the extreme loss of life. We all saw "The Day After" in the 80's and those of us who lived through the height of the Cold War can't help but imagine nuclear destruction so maybe you think, "nah. Jesus has gotta be talking about something after that generation and the time of the disciples just because of the sheer scale." And I get that logic… IF YOU REMOVE that verse from the context of the entire conversation. But Jesus is NOT talking about the whole world - he was focusing specifically on Jerusalem and Judea and the Temple. And the Jewish areas under Roman control. That's been the topic of discussion in these whole passage. Right BEFORE that verse, Jesus is talking about the Temple and fleeing from Judea to the hills and right AFTER that verse Jesus talks about the false messiahs that will show up during that time. And again he uses the present tense and he tells His disciples -

See, I have warned YOU about this AHEAD OF TIMEMatthew 24:25

Now, without going into great detail - that time around the temple and the siege of Jerusalem and the rise of the zealots and really the utter destruction of the Jewish people and way of life under Titus and Vespasian and Nero and the Romans - it was horrific. If you read what Josephus writes about this time period - it is horrible. Just absolutely devastating. The temple being filled with rivers of blood. 8,500 dead bodies being stacked inside the temple grounds (also an abomination by the way) on one day alone. Mothers eating their babies because they had no food. Like this is just a little of the horrors. It's so hard to read. But historians tell us that while Jerusalem has had it's share of problems over the centuries - being besieged, conquered and heavily damaged over 100 times in its history - the total dismantling of the city, the total destruction of the temple, the permanent exile of the population in AD 70 and the sheer amount of death and terror in Jerusalem at that time was unparalleled in scope at that time and that level of destruction it has not been experienced again in that area. Which lines up with what Jesus says in Matthew 24:21

Now, remember - I said the disciples asked Jesus two questions, probably not realizing they were two separate questions. They probably equated or conflated the events in their minds because it made sense to them. The two questions were-

• What sign will signal your return?

• What sign would signal the end of the age?

So far, Jesus had been answering question 2. "What sign would signal the end of the age?" But when he's talking about not going out to these false messiahs that would come out of the woodwork at this time, he shifts to answer question 1. "What sign will signal your return?"

Jesus says - "So if someone tells you, 'Look, the Messiah is out in the desert,' don't bother to go and look. Or 'Look, he is hiding here,' don't believe it! Okay - that's present tense- that generation, so far… now comes the switch as a matter of distinction to talk about Jesus' second coming - a separate, future event…

For as the lightning flashes in the east and shines to the west, so it will be when the Son of Man comes.Matthew 24:27

IE - when Jesus returns at the Second Coming - you'll know it. He's not out in the desert somewhere, he's not hiding somewhere - like the lighting lights up the whole sky, when Jesus comes back THE WHOLE WORLD and yes this time (Animaniacs song) WILL KNOW IT

And then comes the hardest parts of this whole passage in Matthew 24. But since we're run out of time, we're gonna have to save that for next week.

Until next time, may God grant us wisdom, understanding, and peace in our hearts no matter what challenges we face. God bless you! Have a great week!